Publications
Partners
An association of independent candidates that has registered to
contest upcoming municipal elections in five provinces has rejected allegations
circulated among ANC members in the North West that the organisation was founded
by disgruntled ANC councillors.
Rattled by suspicions that at least 10 current ANC councillors had
registered to contest elections under the banner of the new “Forum 4 Service
Delivery”, those linked to the ANC’s election team in North West’s Bojanala
region on Friday circulated a list of the association’s candidates, including
the names of the party’s councillors in Rustenburg.
However, the Pretoria-based founder of the association, Joe Kekana,
told City Press in an interview that the body provided a vehicle for independent
candidates to register for the elections and supported them to be better
prepared in the tough contest against established political parties who had a
tested campaign machinery.
The support included making it affordable for independent
candidates to register with the Independent Electoral Commission and providing
them with election material, said Kekana.
He said the forum, which was a non-governmental organisation until
it registered with the IEC last year, was contesting elections in five provinces
including North West, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo.
He said the independent candidates were “administratively accountable to the forum and politically accountable to the community as their employers”.
Kekana said the forum’s final candidates list would be announced in
three weeks once the IEC had concluded the process of disputes.
Kekana said the candidates under their association were not only from the ANC and there were people from the Democratic Alliane and the Economic Freedom Fighters.
However, those who joined the forum joined as individuals and their previous political home was not an issue they took seriously.
A senior ANC leader in North West told City Press that other
municipalities in the province including Tlokwe and Matlosana also reported
cases of some ANC councillors contesting the elections under the Forum 4 Service
Delivery.
